Confronting the Terrorism of Boko Haram in Nigeria - Resourcedat

JSOU Report 12-5In May 1967, Gowon’s administration unveiled a plan to create a new12-state structure for Nigeria. Among the most significant changes was thatthe eastern region would be divided into three states, two of them dominatedby non-Igbo groups, ensuring that the Igbo would not dominate the oil-richNiger Delta region. The Igbo rejected these proposed constitutional revisionsand insisted on full autonomy for the east. Then on 27 May 1967, LieutenantColonel Emeka Ojukwu—the military governor of the eastern region anda leader of the Igbo secessionist movement—declared the independence ofthe region, which adopted as its new name the “Republic of Biafra,” and aviolent civil war ensued. Biafran forces crossed the Niger River, movingwest in an effort to capture Lagos, the capital of Nigeria at the time. Gowon’smilitary drove them back, imposed a naval blockade, and launched its owninvasion of northern Biafra. Although France granted formal recognitionto the independent Republic of Biafra and provided military support to therebels, the United Kingdom backed the Nigerian federal government, andby January 1970 the Biafran revolt had been crushed and Nigerian forcesdeclared victory in the civil war.More than 2 million Nigerians died in the conflict, which formally endedon 12 January 1970 with a declaration of surrender over Biafran radio byMajor General Philip Effiong. Nigerian President Gowon announced hewould remain in power for six more years to ensure a peaceful transitionto democracy. However, in 1974 Gowon announced that the return to civilianrule would be postponed indefinitely. His timing was poor: high prices,chronic shortages of food and necessities, growing corruption, and the failureof the government to address several regional issues had already createda restless mood.As a result, on 29 July 1975, Brigadier Murtala Ramat Muhammed overthrewGowon in a bloodless coup. Muhammed moved quickly to addressissues that Gowon had avoided. He replaced corrupt state governors, purgedincompetent and corrupt members of the public services, and instigated aplan to move the national capital from industrial, coastal Lagos to neglected,interior Abuja. Civilian rule, he declared, would be restored by 1979, andhe began a five-stage process of transition. However, subsequent politicaland economic reforms made Muhammed extremely unpopular with manyNigerians, and on 13 February 1976, he was assassinated in a coup attempt,although his administration remained in power. His successor, LieutenantGeneral Olusegun Obasanjo, continued Muhammed’s reforms, including22